BASSTEGG (Bay Area Simplified Simulation of Travel, Energy, and Greenhouse Gases): Sketch Planning Charrette/GIS Models for Predicting Household Vehicle Miles of Travel (VMT) and Greenhouse Gas (CO2) Emissions

Abstract

With the increased interest in the interactions of land use and transportation and their related impacts on global warming, there is now a warranted need for improved and quicker techniques for stimulating mobile source based, regional and sub-regional greenhouse gas emissions. The Bay Area Simplified Simulation of Travel, Energy, and Greenhouse Gases (BASTEGG) is a GIS-based tool for calculating automobile availability, vehicle usage, fuel consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions, by each household within the San Francisco Bay Area at the neighborhood level. There are three component models in the BASSTEGG, simulating auto ownership levels, vehicle usage levels, and carbon dioxide emissions. Socio-economic and elative transit-to-highway accessibility data at the travel analysis zone level is used to predict the distribution of household by vehicle availability level. Cross-classification models of vehicle miles of travel per household (VMT/HH) are applied based on urban density levels. Lastly, emissions per mile models, based on California Air Resources Board’s EMFAC models for various forecast years, are used to convert VMT per household into on-road mobile sources greenhouse gas emissions per household. The BASSTEGG model is intended to be used in land use alternatives scenarios testing at the regional level, and by city planners interested in the VMT and greenhouse gases produced and their communities.